Missed opportunities for epilepsy surgery referrals in Bhutan: A cohort study

Temporal Lobe Surgery for Epilepsy in a Resource-Limited Vietnamese Cohort

BACKGROUND

Epilepsy surgery is traditionally difficult to pursue in resource-limited countries but is nevertheless essential in the treatment of medication-refractory, surgically amenable epilepsy.

METHODS

With the help of international collaboration, a successful epilepsy program was started in Vietnam. This article comprises a retrospective chart review, combined with prospective longitudinal follow-up of 35 cases of unilateral drug-resistant epilepsy in the temporal lobe who underwent temporal lobectomy, in Viet Duc University Hospital from May 2018 to September 2022.

RESULTS

The female/male ratio was 0.6:1, and focal seizures with impaired awareness accounted for 97.14% of patients. Of patients with focal awareness seizures, 51.41% were localized and detected by electroencephalography. Postoperatively, 80% of patients were seizure free (Engel I) at 1 year, and the remaining 20% had worthwhile seizure improvement (Engel II). Postoperative temporal lobe pathology was categorized as follows: mesial temporal sclerosis (48.57%), focal cortical dysplasia (25.71%), and low-grade neoplasms (25.71%). Of patients, 17.14% had postoperative complications (5 infections and 1 transient extremity paresis), and there were no deaths.

CONCLUSIONS

Even in low-resource environments, effective and safe surgical care can be provided for drug-resistant epilepsy caused by temporal lobe disease. This study serves as a model of international collaboration and support for future hospitals in low-resource environments to replicate.

Challenges in epilepsy diagnosis and management in a low-resource setting: An experience from Bhutan

Epilepsy is an important cause of morbidity and mortality especially in low- and middle-income countries. People with epilepsy (PWE) face difficulties in access to healthcare, appropriate diagnostic tests and anti-seizure medications (ASM). Bhutan is one such country in the Himalayas that has reported doubling of the prevalence of epilepsy from 155.7 per 100,000 population in 2017 to 312.4 in 2021. The country has one centre for electroencephalography and magnetic resonance imaging for a population of 0.7 million and does not have any neurologists as of 2023. There are 16 ASMs registered in the country but only selected medications are available at the primary level hospitals (phenobarbital, phenytoin and diazepam). There are challenges in the availability of these medicines all time round the year in all levels of hospitals. Neurosurgical treatment options are limited by the lack of adequate pre-surgical evaluation facilities and lack of trained human resources. The majority of PWE have reported facing societal stigma with significant impact on the overall quality of life. It is important to screen for psychiatric comorbidities and provide psychological support wherever possible. There is a need for a comprehensive national guideline that will cater to the needs of PWE and their caregivers within the resources available in the country. A special focus on the institutional and human resource capacity development for the study and care of epilepsy is recommended.

Healthcare professionals' knowledge, attitude, and perception of epilepsy surgery: A systematic review

OBJECTIVE

The epilepsy surgery treatment gap is well defined and secondary to a broad range of issues, including healthcare professionals' (HCPs') knowledge, attitude, and perception (KAP) toward epilepsy surgery. However, no previous systematic reviews investigated this important topic.

METHODS

The systematic review was conducted according to Preferred Reporting Items for the Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. We identified a total of 652 articles from multiple databases using database-specific queries and included 65 articles for full-text review after screening the titles and abstracts of the articles. Finally, we selected 11 papers for qualitative analysis. We critically appraised the quality of the studies using the Joanna Briggs critical appraisal tool.

RESULTS

The qualitative analysis of the content identified several key reasons causing healthcare professional-related barriers to epilepsy surgery: inadequate knowledge and awareness about the role of epilepsy surgery in drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE), poor identification and referral of patients with DRE, insufficient selection of candidates for presurgical workup, negative or ambivalent attitudes and perceptions regarding epilepsy surgery, deficient communication practices with patients regarding risk-benefit analysis of epilepsy surgery, and challenging coordination issues with the surgical referral. Neurologists with formal instruction in epilepsy, surgical exposure during training, participation in high volume epilepsy practice, or prior experience in surgical referral may refer more patients for surgical evaluation.

CONCLUSIONS

While significant work has been conducted in a limited number of studies to explore HCPs' knowledge gap and educational need regarding epilepsy surgery, further research is needed in defining the learning goals, assessing and validating specific learning gaps among providers, defining the learning outcomes, optimizing the educational format, content, and outcome measures, and appraising the achieved results following the educational intervention.

Trends in pediatric epilepsy surgery: A lower-middle-income country perspective

OBJECTIVE

To study the trends for pediatric epilepsy surgery between 2000 and 2014 in a tertiary epilepsy surgery center in India in order to gain a lower- and middle-income country (LMIC) perspective.

METHODS

Children aged <18 years and undergoing epilepsy surgery were divided into three groups based on the year that they underwent surgery-group 1: year 2000-2004; group 2: year 2005-2009; and group 3: year 2010-2014. Data including the rate of surgery, type of surgery, and duration of epilepsy before referral were analyzed from the medical records and compared.

RESULTS

Between 2000 and 2014, 463 pediatric epilepsy surgeries were performed. The proportion of pediatric epilepsy surgeries showed an increasing trend-218 (total 510 surgeries, 42.74%) in group 3, compared with 115 (total 375 surgeries, 30.66%) in group 1 and 130 (total 466 surgeries, 27.9%) in group 2. A significant decrease in the age at evaluation and duration of epilepsy before referral was noted between 2000 and 2014, particularly in patients belonging to the lowest income group. There was a two-fold increase in the number of extratemporal surgeries over time. The proportion of children undergoing surgery for benign tumors, cortical malformations, and gliosis/atrophy showed an upward trend while that for mesial temporal sclerosis did not show an increase.

SIGNIFICANCE

Promising trends in pediatric epilepsy surgery were noted with increasing number of surgeries and decreasing age at presurgical evaluation. Seen from an LMIC perspective, this reflects an evolution in the practice of pediatric epilepsy surgery, mirroring trends in high-income countries.